Bharat Jodo Yatra: Distance on foot may be curtailed in J-K, says Jairam Ramesh

Shimla: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi may curtail the distance on foot during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir, party leader Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday, stressing that there will be no compromise on security.

He said they are having discussions with authorities in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Rahul Gandhi would undertake padyatra in Jammu and Kashmir but there would be no compromise with security. We are having a consultation with the state authorities regarding the security and maybe the distance on foot could be curtailed,” Ramesh, who is Congress general secretary in-charge communications, said.

He was addressing a press conference here on the sidelines of the Bharat Jodo Yatra which entered Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday morning.

AICC J-K in-charge Rajni Patil has said the Yatra will enter Lakhanpur (in Jammu and Kashmir) from Punjab Thursday evening.

Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh had on Tuesday said adequate security will be provided to the march when it reaches the Union territory.

To a question on whether the Yatra will be allowed on foot, he had replied that it will be regulated in such a manner that people do not face any inconvenience. He also asserted that the Yatra will be “guided from the security point of view as well wherever it is needed”.

“These things will be regulated because there is traffic and other things. A huge yatra can cause inconvenience to people as roads can get blocked. This is a Yatra and is taken both on foot as well as using vehicles.

“Our endeavour will be to take forward the march with vehicles wherever there is a single road, and in the rest of the places, the participants may be advised to walk on foot where the roads allow,” Singh said.

The march, which started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, will conclude with Gandhi hoisting the national flag in Srinagar. It has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.